Big Oil has been slow to jump into the fracking business, which has transformed U.S. energy markets by extracting oil and gas from shale deposits.

Written by

Wendy Koch
Gannett

What boom? While the United States enjoys a surge in oil and natural gas production, its two largest oil companies - ExxonMobil and Chevron - have so far missed the party.

Big Oil was slow to jump into the fracking business, which has transformed U.S. energy markets by extracting oil and gas from shale deposits. And its latest quarterly reports show how it's struggling to get on board.

"The big oil companies were late to invest in shale. They're trying to play catch-up," says Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones, noting smaller and more nimble companies got into fracking more quickly. He ...